BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Senator Richard Alarc?n, Chairman
Bill No: AB 1505Hearing:8/23/99
Author:
DuchenyFiscal:Appropriations
Version: 8/17/99
Consultant:Yee
FARMWORKER HOUSING AND LOCAL LAND USE REGULATIONS
Background :
Despite the mechanization of California's agribusiness,
there is still a demand for farm labor. Changing crop
patterns shifted the demand for farmworkers and also
changed the need for employee housing. As growers change
the location of market crops, grape and fruit orchards,
coastal strawberries, and nurseries, they attract
farmworkers to new areas.
In 1995, the Senate Housing and Land Use Committee held an
interim hearing on farmworker housing. The Committee found
that, local community opposition to new farmworker housing
could stop projects favored by growers, farmworkers, and
local officials. Housing advocates want to make it easier
to build farmworker housing in agricultural communities.
Proposed Law :
I. Housing elements . Under the Planning and Zoning Law,
every city and county must prepare and adopt a general plan
to guide the future growth of a community. Every general
plan must contain seven elements, including a housing
element. In that document, local officials must identify
their community's share of regional housing needs and then
identify adequate sites for housing, including rental
housing, factory-built housing, mobilehomes, emergency
shelters, and transitional housing. If the housing element
does not identify adequate sites, the housing element must
provide that local zoning ordinances allow residential "use
by right" for very low and low-income households. "Use by
AB 1505 8/17/99
Page 2
right" means that a builder does not need an additional
conditional use permit.
Assembly Bill 1505 requires local general plans' housing
elements to identify adequate sites with public services
and facilities for housing for agricultural employees to
meet the city or county's regional share of farmworker
housing. If a housing element's inventory of sites does
not identify adequate sites for farmworker housing, AB 1505
requires the document to provide for zoning that permits
farmworker housing or multifamily residential uses as a
"use by right."
II. Permit Streamlining Act . Under the Permit
Streamlining Act, public officials must act on development
projects within 180 days of the certification of the
project's environmental impact report.
Assembly Bill 1505 requires public officials to act on a
development project within 90 days of the certification of
an environmental impact report under three conditions:
The development project is for agricultural
employee housing and is affordable to very low and
low-income households.
The project's applicant has applied or will apply
for financial assistance from a public agency or
federal agency, including housing tax credits and bond
financing.
The public or federal funding application was
received before the EIR was certified.
This provision takes effect only if Senate Bill 948 is not
enacted in 1999.
III. Williamson Act . Under the Williamson Act, a
landowner can enter into a contract with a county or a city
agreeing to keep the property in agricultural, open space,
or compatible uses for at least 10 years. In return,
county officials must reduce the property's assessed
valuation. Housing advocates want to encourage more
farmworker housing in agricultural areas. Assembly Bill
1505 makes the following changes to the Williamson Act's
handling of farmworker housing:
Allows a landowner to subdivide land that is under
AB 1505 8/17/99
Page 3
Williamson Act contract if all of the following apply:
1. The property to be sold or leased is no more than
five acres.
2. The property must be sold or leased to a nonprofit
organization, city, county, housing authority, or
state agency.
3. The property to be sold or leased must be subject
to a deed restriction limiting its use to agricultural
laborer housing for at least 30 years. When the
property is no longer used for housing, it must be
merged with the property from which it was subdivided.
4. There must be a written agreement to jointly
operate the properties for the duration of the
Williamson Act contract.
5. The property must be in a city, in a city's sphere
of influence, or in unincorporated territory and
contiguous to existing residential or commercial uses.
6. The design, location, and operation of the
agricultural laborer housing must minimize the effect
on agricultural husbandry practices.
Recognizes that agricultural laborer housing facilities
are a compatible use under Williamson Act contracts,
regardless if the facilities are provided by the
landowner, a city, a county, a city and county, the state
government, or a nonprofit organization.
Allows a city, county, city and county, the state
government, or a nonprofit corporation to indemnify a
Williamson Act landowner against all claims arising from
the use of the land for agricultural laborer housing
facilities.
Comments :
1. Planning farmworker housing . Farmworkers, especially
migrants, must endure some of California's worst housing
conditions. When housing isn't available, farmworkers have
no choice but to live in cars, fields, and in dangerously
substandard and overcrowded housing. Legislative hearings
documented the need for safe, decent, and affordable
AB 1505 8/17/99
Page 4
housing, as well as the lack of adequate private and public
funding. As the state government and local officials begin
to increase the amount of capital available for building
and rehabilitating farmworker housing, there is still a
need to find and identify acceptable locations for these
projects. AB 1505 responds to these problems by planning
for more sites for farmworker housing and speeding up the
local development review and approval process.
2. Incompatible use . Housing can be incompatible with
even accepted agricultural practices. Pesticide drift,
plowing dust, machinery noises, downwind odors, and
barnyard pests make for bad neighbors. Farmers can
mitigate these unavoidable nuisances by leaving buffer
areas between their crops and adjacent housing. But buffer
areas mean less productive land, higher costs, and lower
profits because more land is needed to accommodate the
housing. The Committee may wish to consider if farmworker
housing on Williamson Act land reduces the productivity of
adjacent farmland.
3. Contingent enactment . Earlier this year, the Senate
passed SB 948 (Alarc?n, 1999) that amends the Permit
Streamlining Act to speed up the approval of affordable
housing developments. SB 948 applies to all very low and
low-income housing developments while AB 1505 applies to
very low and low-income housing for farmworkers. Because
the language in AB 1505 is narrower than SB 948, Section 6
of the Ducheny bill will go into effect only if the Alarc?n
bill does not pass this year. SB 948 is still in the
Assembly Local Government Committee.
4. Second policy hearing . A major portion of AB 1505
relates to farmworker housing on agricultural lands that
are subject to Williamson Act contracts and the Permit
Streamlining Act. These issues are the jurisdiction of the
Senate Local Government Committee. The Committee heard AB
1505 on August 18, 1999, and the bill passed by a 6-1 vote.
5. Technical amendments needed . The sections of AB 1505
that affects the Williamson Act are inconsistent and the
Committee should adopt technical amendments to avoid
confusion. Section 2 and 3 need not refer to farmland
owned by a city and county because San Francisco has none.
Sections 2 and 3 should, however, refer to housing
AB 1505 8/17/99
Page 5
authorities, which can own and operate farmworker housing.
Section 1 (page 3, line 7) uses the word "nor," and it
should be changed to "no."
Assembly Actions :
Housing and Community Development Committee: 10-0
Natural Resources Committee: 11-0
Appropriations Committee: 21-0
Floor: 79-0
Support and Opposition : (8/19/)
Support :
Agricultural Council of California
Bank of America
Burbank Housing Development Corporation
California Building Industry Association
California Business Properties Association
California Catholic Conference
California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Catholic Charities of California
CHISPA
Civic Center Barrio Housing Corporation
Coachella Valley Housing Coalition
Community Housing Opportunities Corporation
Congress of California Seniors
Davis and Company
Esperanza Community Housing Corporation
JERICHO
Midpeninsula Housing Coalition
Orange County Community Housing Corporation
People's Self-Help Housing Corporation
Rural California Housing Corporation
Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation
Sacramento Mutual Housing Association
Santa Clara County Housing Authority
Self-Help Enterprises
South County Housing
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Western Growers Association
Wine Institute
AB 1505 8/17/99
Page 6
WNC & Associates
Opposition :
California Farm Bureau Federation
California State Association of Counties